Curious Tides is a book I’ve been seeing around recently. I think it’s because of the latest short story prequel. And it really defies expectations. It’s much larger than I was expecting for a YA series opener, but it packs a punch! Keep reading this book review of Curious Tides for my full thoughts.
Summary
Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.
Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.
To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore— alive —only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.
And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.
Review
Curious Tides manages to be a story about secret societies, dark academic, societal prejudice, and love. It’s a chunky series opener and while some parts of it felt a bit slow, particularly towards the middle, the ending has me excited for Stranger Skies. It begins with a magical school, with students reeling from tragic deaths. Yet at the same time, Emory knows not all is as it seems. That something magical and secretive occurred and only she can unravel it. At the same time, Baz is reeling from his sister’s death – and his roommate’s disappearance – but also tracking down a magical epilogue.
Because while there’s this magical school setting, there’s also a sister story line of an important book. A book which has changed the ways we view ourselves and which ends up becoming more important than we thought. It feels meta to be reading a fantasy story about characters who so deeply love a book and want to find out what it means. So Curious Tides has these two story lines and then this third one all about the societal treatment of eclipse born. I couldn’t even pick a favorite story line because I loved how they all developed.
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And while there were some parts that felt like they dragged, the audio book narration really kept the momentum going. I loved that we get three narrators: Gary Furlong, Shakira Shute & Toni Frutin. It’s such a treat and helps establish the characters earlier on. Curious Tides is a story that kept surprising me. I ended up really enjoying this series opener and am so excited for the sequel! At the core of the story is one of ambition, loss, and a search for the truth. About people who can offer everything, and others who have nothing to lose.
Find Curious Tides on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.